The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Making a point with a bang

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 13, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Making a point with a bang

By Our Staff Reporter

KURNOOL, SEPT. 12. The former MLA and president of the Rayalaseema Hakkula Ikya Vedika, T.G. Venkatesh, surprised everyone at the weekly meeting of the organisation on Sunday by breaking three pots.

The meeting was convened to interact with office-bearers of the Chambers of Commerce from four Rayalaseema districts, besides Prakasam and Nellore.

Symbolic act

Before addressing the gathering, Mr. Venkatesh asked his attendants to bring three earthen pots. Along with other leaders, he broke them. Later, he explained that he was only competing with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president, K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Referring to the statements of Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao that he always called a spade a spade (Telugu equivalent of which is kundalu baddalu kottinattu cheppadam), Mr. Venkatesh said if the TRS chief wanted to indulge in plain speaking, he wanted to out-beat him.

Economic drain

Mr. Venkatesh said leaders of Telangana and coastal Andhra could not simply opt for separation, particularly after causing economic drain of Rayalaseema. Telangana was developed industrially and a huge amount from the common pool was spent on development of Hyderabad. Similarly, coastal Andhra was developed agriculturally by utilising a large share in the Krishna waters. Irrigation projects were executed only in coastal Andhra, he said.

`Pay compensation'

Mr. Venkatesh claimed that the leadership of Rayalaseema had agreed to shift the capital from Kurnool in the hope of forming a unified State with all Telugu speaking people and had remained tolerant though a huge share of water was utilised by coastal Andhra. Now, the region, which was fully developed at the cost of Rayalaseema, wanted to get separated.

Mr. Venkatesh said Rayalaseema should be paid a compensation of Rs. 50,000 crores and no debt burden should be placed on the region. If Telangana and coastal Andhra regions wanted separate states, Rayalaseema should be adequately compensated. Even if the unified State continued, the second capital should be located in Rayalaseema and a major share in the Krishna waters be given to the region.

The presidents of the Chambers of Commerce -- Vijayakumar Reddy (Kurnool), Naganjaneyulu (Anantapur), K.V. Maheswar (Chittoor), Musala Rao (Ongole), M. Rangaiah (Cuddapah) and M. Subramanyam (Nellore) -- attended the meeting.

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